82: Chapter 2: Why Are There Aliens?

82: Chapter 2: Why Are There Aliens?

On the morning of March 23, 2028, a black Hongqi car drove into the residential area.

Xiang Shan, dressed in casual travel clothes and carrying a backpack, waved goodbye to his parents who were seeing him off.

His mother, with tears welling up in her eyes, touched the corner of her eye and waved back at him.

After the car door opened, a young man in a suit and leather shoes stepped out.

He greeted Xiang Shan with a polite smile, “Researcher Xiang Shan, may I see your ID, please?”

Xiang Shan presented his ID card.

The official scanned it with his unbranded cell phone, and after confirming it was correct, he turned around to retrieve an envelope, “These are the documents you need, as well as your new phone.”

Xiang Shan weighed the envelope in his hand.

It was hefty, with a distinct feel of a cellphone, though the rest wasn’t thick.

After sitting in the back seat at the official’s gesture, he opened the envelope, took out the phone, and found it had no brand, though it looked similar to some flagship models on the market.

“This phone is specially made, and the system was also written internally,” the official said as he started the car, “It has quite a tight lock on some authorizations, and many apps from China might not work properly.

I hope you can overcome that.

Also, please do not upgrade the phone yourself unless authorized…”

Xiang Shan was stunned, “That’s impossible.

I’m not stupid.”

“I know,” the official smiled, “But I also know that you computer folks are used to tinkering with your electronic products.

There have been incidents before, so I needed to make that clear.”

Xiang Shan quickly nodded.

The phone seemed to have fingerprint lock already set up.

Xiang Shan naturally started the phone.

“By the way, the SIM card inside is also special; your number is the same as before,” the official continued, “You won’t have to pay the phone bill anymore.

However, your call records will be monitored to some extent.

I hope you understand—You don’t have a partner, do you?”

Xiang Shan shook his head.

He was somewhat surprised that the “same number as before” still applied, but it wasn’t too shocking.

As for surveillance, he was prepared for it when he decided to take on this secretive project.

After putting the phone in his pocket, Xiang Shan dumped the remaining contents of the envelope out.

“Huh?”

He then exclaimed in astonishment.

Among the several documents, on top was a passport.

It was the familiar dark red booklet.

Xiang Shan had one too.

Liu had taken him abroad several times.

But since he was joining a secretive project this time, he hadn’t brought that booklet with him.

He thought he might not need it for the next several years.

In his mind, he would mostly stay in some heavily guarded place within the country, or at worst, go to the western deserts.

“Why are you… never mind, it’s nothing.”

There was no point in questioning it.

The passport was issued by the state, so if needed, the state issuing him a temporary one again wasn’t strange.

But the issue was… why would a secretive project operate abroad?

He was a scholar, not a spy.

Xiang Shan quickly picked up the passport, wanting to see what was inside.

But the document underneath was even more peculiar.

The blue leather cover of the document was embossed with the United Nations emblem.

“United… United Nations Project Services credentials?” Xiang Shan was shocked, looking at the official driving the car.

The official glanced at Xiang Shan through the rearview mirror and said with a smile, “If you have any questions, don’t ask me.

All I can tell you is that I’m just an errand runner, I know nothing.”

Xiang Shan didn’t believe that at all.

He set the passport aside and then picked up the United Nations document.

The identity information and photo inside were his.

The position was listed as…

“Special Advisor?”

Xiang Shan’s confusion deepened.

Why would an international project have such a high level of secrecy?

Come to think of it, why would they recruit a hardware scholar for an international project?

Xiang Shan was completely baffled.

Upon opening the passport, his confusion grew.

This passport had been issued visas.

His original passport only had visas for the USA and Japan, but this one had visas from several countries including the USA, Russia, the UK, France, Japan, and others.

Since France is a Schengen Country, he could travel to over twenty European countries with this passport.

But the question was…

If he was involved in a secretive project, even if it was in cooperation with a foreign country, at most he would get a visa for that cooperating nation.

Why would he be given so many visas all at once?

Moreover, it was strange that those countries had issued them so quickly.

He had only been pulled into this project yesterday.

It was impossible for the state to have prepared this passport in advance.

Clearly, it had been made within a day.

A big question mark appeared over Xiang Shan’s head.

“Why…”

“All I can tell you is that I know nothing.”

Soon, the Red Flag car zigzagged and entered an alley, then drove into a large courtyard.

In the courtyard, an official opened the car door for Xiang Shan.

Xiang Shan was still a bit confused, his mind hadn’t caught up yet, “Is this…

the place?”

“Ah, no, we’re switching cars here,” the official shook his head.

Some people came out from the houses inside.

One of them was Xiang Shan’s mentor, Liu Zhenghui.

“Teacher?” Xiang Shan greeted promptly.

Liu was slightly overweight and his head had long been balding.

He nodded at Xiang Shan, “Xiang Shan, how are you feeling?

It’s your first time participating in such a project, any thoughts?”

Xiang Shan said, “Pretty nervous… and also… it feels a bit strange.”

“Strange?” Liu seemed to think of something, “Did you also get a United Nations credential?”

Xiang Shan nodded, “We must be part of the same group, right?”

Liu appeared somewhat anxious.

He was a researcher in hardware structure design and had a good grasp on reverse engineering, having participated in two secret projects before.

But he truly did not know why, after accepting the national recruitment, he would receive a United Nations credential.

Another person who looked like a staff member called everyone to switch to another vehicle.

Liu, being quite large, sat in the passenger seat.

Xiang Shan and another tall, thin man with wire-rimmed glasses, a woman in her thirties, got into a car together.

On the road, the scholars started talking softly among themselves.

Liu was a relatively prominent scholar domestically and had several labs under his name.

Apart from hardware structure design, he was also involved in two interdisciplinary projects.

One of them was about the hardware aspect of additive manufacturing instruments, in collaboration with the materials science department, based at the Basic Industrial Training Center.

This lab was usually managed by “Big Senior Brother,” but important projects were assigned to Xiang Shan.

Additionally, he was involved in a crossover project with neuroscience.

Xiang Shan occasionally made experimental equipment for it, but otherwise, there wasn’t much interaction.

Since circles were small, there weren’t many famous scholars.

Therefore, Liu instinctively assumed that those collaborating with him this time would be from the fields of materials science or neuroscience since he indeed had overlapping projects with these disciplines.

But after asking around, he realized that things were somewhat different than he had imagined.

The tall, thin man with wire-rimmed glasses was named Li Jiahua, a behaviorist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

His main focus was the evolutionary psychology of primates, often working with monkeys.

According to him, he was called while he was “playing around with monkeys.”

The woman was named Zhang Qiaoyun, from the Academy of Social Sciences’ Institute of Ethnic Languages, who had been researching a dead language known as “White Wolf Language.” She had no idea why the state would need her for such a project.

However, after some discussions, they discovered that everyone had received the same credential.

“Yikes!” Xiang Shan murmured, “This is not good… definitely not good…”

Electronic information technology, behavioral science, and linguistics were projects that had nothing in common.

If ancient human relics were discovered, then it would make sense for behavioral scientists and linguists to appear in the same area.

But it didn’t make sense to also include someone who specializes in computer hardware.

And it made even less sense to set such a high level of secrecy.

All these connections only led him to think of…

………………………………………

“Holy shit, aliens?” Xiang Shan, feeling…

more correctly said to be feeling baffled internally, disconnected from the memory link.

It was daytime now, the sun had just risen.

Xiang Shan did not continue moving forward, instead, he parked the “donkey” on the eastern side of a protruding boulder, closely against the rock, to cast as much of the vehicle’s shadow on the rock as possible.

Travelling during the day was too risky, as optical surveillance could easily spot them.

Additionally, the solar panels could easily overheat, and a square high-temperature object moving was indeed easy to notice.

So during the day, Xiang Shan usually looked for a place to recharge.

Now was the time to rest.

Yuki, although exhausted from traveling all night, was still woken up by Xiang Shan, holding a rifle and keeping watch around.

Meanwhile, Xiang Shan continued to absorb and organize those past memories.

What he had just accessed were probably the oldest memories in the hard drive.

Not for any particular reason, these files weren’t time-stamped, but during the preview, he definitely felt this vague sensation.

Then he began reading one of the memories.

And then…

Xiang Shan felt things started to turn bizarre.

“Remnants of a super-ancient civilization?

Or aliens?” Xiang Shan held his head, “Why does it feel like the theme of this world is all wrong?

This seems like a post-apocalyptic wasteland flow, right?

Maybe even with Cyberpunk elements… Oh, right, and Martial Arts elements.

But how could there possibly be aliens appearing out of nowhere?”

Xiang Shan’s mind inexplicably conjured up a strange story.

An alien spaceship crashed on Earth, then a young man, who had mastered Martial Arts to the utmost extent with no further progress, entered it, seized resources to strengthen himself, and then changed the entire world’s theme…

“No, no, no, no, no…” Xiang Shan shook his head, “Did I used to love reading novels?

Such a far-fetched story…

must be from some novel!”